


Dance Steps

by Matsu_Megurine



Category: Fate/Zero, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: Ballroom Dancing, Canon Compliant, F/F, Romantic Fluff, because I LOVE canon-complianting my fics~
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-05-30 19:23:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15103313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Matsu_Megurine/pseuds/Matsu_Megurine
Summary: Saber might not be so experienced with courtship... but she is still a medieval knight! And her dear princess needs some romance afterall.





	Dance Steps

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Passos de Dança](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/393182) by myself. 



Irisviel’s hair dazzled sublimely, reflecting the sunshine as she stared outside the window, thoughtfully. Her silky, white skin made her look like a doll.

Which, if you think about it, she indeed was. A construct manufactured by magi, to be used as a living source of mana, a tool for their own selfish and political goals.

“Irisiviel”, a voice called out to her.

Irisviel turned on her knees to face the door of the room. There stood a woman in man’s clothes who was staring at her. She was the one who had called. Iri smiled and came closer to her.

“Saber”, she greeted. “Good morning.”

The blonde woman, the Servant from the Saber Class in that Holy Grail War, glanced at a table clock on a small round desk.

“Isn’t it a bit late for ‘good morning’s?” She asked, in a slightly teasing way, though without casting her politeness away.

Iri left out a soft giggling.

“I suppose so. I’m sorry, I overslept.”

Saber made no more comments about that. She knew the reason why Iri woke up in the middle of the day. Her health was unstable – the price for wielding so much magic power – and the day before she presented signs of weakness that left concerned both her husband the Servant who was now talking to her. He, in particular, was now far away, in another part of the city, too busy following the trail of the other competitors of the War. Iri wished he would come back soon.

Meanwhile, however, the presence of the Saber surely wasn’t the worst.

“Kiritsugu told me to take care of you for today”, Saber said after stepping closer. “He shan’t come back until night falls.”

“Oh… I’m sorry for you having to stay behind taking care of me instead of making yourself present on the battlefield…”

“No, no, don’t be!” The blonde one hurried to reply. She cleared her throat. “It is... not a nuisance. Kiritsugu may be my Master, but that does not mean we are on the same page, eitherway…”

Iri smiled, turning her gaze back to the outsides of the window.

“I hope that… eventually… the two of you can get along.”

Saber stared at her. “No way”, she thought. She and Kiritsugu were like oil and water. Completely opposed to Iri, who Saber was able to spend the time with in such a pleasant way that sometimes she would forget about the Holy Grail War and the wish over all other things she wanted.

It was cold outside, so the two of them would need to spend the rest of the day inside the castle. Now and then, Iri would change her doings. Picking up a book. Going to another room. Looking at flowers in vases on the hallways. But she would always pause midway, eyes locked on the windows. Saber wondered if she was worried about Kiritsugu or thinking about their far-away child.

She never felt that. A dearness that great for a family member, for a spouse on top of that. Saber reigned during a time when marriage was more of a political recourse than the hope of any lasting romantic bond. And her own marriage left no child for her to raise.

Irisviel gave her a saddened smile after casting aside some Kiritsugu’s belongings she had been messing with. The sound of her landing the objects over the wooden table was a lone one in the place.

“The castle seems far too empty…” she said.

Saber stepped closer to her. While Iri was lost in her own thoughts and actions, she used to maintain some distance between them, but she felt joyful when Iri spoke to her, as if inviting her to an interaction.

“Are there usually other people besides the three of you, where you live?”

Iri glanced at her with smiles on her eyes.

“Not really. Sometimes a maid or two. But there is our Illyasviel”, she closed her eyes, in a sweet memory. “Oh, Illya is able to fulfill halls and hallways… She makes me feel like I live an eternal party!”

Saber felt her face slightly reddened, moved by the description, so full of emotion. Irisviel had that power, to move her using emotions… To make Saber wish she was part of that world of hers.

“It would be nice to have her showing this same emotion when talking about me”, she thought, although knowable that it was too great of a presumption for someone who was merely a familiar in the magi war.

She called out,

“Irisviel.”

“Yes, Saber?”

“You live in a castle there too, don’t you? In your country.”

“Uhum”, she nodded. “Although I know that Kiristugu finds it a little too much… I’m ahead of the Einzbern House.”

Saber stepped even closer. Iri had moved to sit on the couch of the living hall, where they were talking, so the Servant decided to do the same.

Across to the beautiful white-haired woman, Saber glanced into her eyes. Iri opened up her eyes a bit, not so familiar with the approach. Not for being introvert but because Saber herself used to be quite formal, so they usually didn’t stay this close.

“How is it, nowadays? To live in a castle.”

“Hm…?”

Iri didn’t know how to answer. Saber proceeded, eyes locked on hers.

“You see, I too used to live in a castle, but I am aware that things are rather different in this time. Actually, for what I know, there are barely any people who live in castles… However… You do look like a princess. Therefore, it seems accurate for me to think that you must live like one. That is why I am asking.”

Iri stared at her, surprised, and then muffled a giggle with a hand.

“I am no princess. And, even though most of the world advances so fast with its technology, there are places in Europe where such buildings are still common… Furthermore among magi.”

_Oh, that’s right. Magi don’t usually get along with technology._

“I see. So there are still such things.”

Iri’s lips let out a smile tinged with shyness.

“I’m sure it’s not the princess life you have in mind. From your time.”

“I have no ways to say. I was only the king, never a princess.”

Iri’s smile shortened, as if she was measuring Saber from her words and expression. That made the blonde cast aside her eyes, flushed.

“Hmm~” Iri hummed, enigmatically.

Saber gulped. Irisviel was so beautiful at that moment, although it was a little frightening not to know what she was thinking. If it wasn’t too bold of hers, Saber would say Iri was even prettier than usual… because her ruby eyes were glancing at her.

Suddenly, Saber stood up. Still blushing on the cheeks, she cleared her throat and said to the woman,

“Milady, if you’d give the honor… I know a thing or two that might suit a princess”, she finally looked up to Irisviel’s clear blue eyes. “And, therefore, that suit you.”

Iri stared at her with kind of a sarcastic expression, not understanding.

“I already said I am not a princess.”

“Indeed”, Saber was quick to answer. “But I view you as one. And… I’d like to treat as such.”

It was Iri’s turn to flush. Saber had been living with them for a while now, so she knew Kiritsugu wasn’t one to say those things. And Iri, although already a mother, still had a lot of romanticism in her heart. She liked to be courted.

Saber lend her a hand, to what Iri accepted.

She stood up, half raised by Saber, who already had one hand on her waist. The albino woman moved her left hand to her partner’s shoulder – at least this bit she knew about dancing.

“Now what, Saber?” she inquired. “There is no music…”

The blonde gently closed her eyes and moved her feet – left one out, right one together, left, then again – slowly, creating a calm pace that started to lull and wrap the two of them.

“Try to listen with your heart…”

Saber was surprised with her own words as soon as they left her mouth and opened her eyes in a daze, face reddening again. She might be the King of Knights, but she was no Prince Charming, used to being romantic. When alive, she never once had the time or the luck for gallantries like that.

However, Irisviel did not notice her surprise, for her own eyes were closed, convinced by that logic. Perhaps for being a mage, Saber thought, it was easy to her to understand that kind of thing. To feel with her heart.

Iri moved her feet accordingly to Saber’s swaying, bit-by-bit getting the hang of the waltz the blonde one was leading. Eventually, she opened her eyes to glance below, to see with she was doing it right.

“Don’t lower your face.” Saber addressed her. “Let yourself be leaden. You don’t need to worry about the technique.”

“…”

“… The lady’s part is to be beautiful as a work of art”, she taught her partner. “Let the gentleman be the one busy with moving and poising you.”

Iri seemed a little intrigued. Said otherwise, by another person, it would seem like they were asking her to be submissive and voiceless, something that would even make sense for someone born in the Middle Ages, who had reigned there… But that was not what came to her ears. What Saber said was only an obvious compliment: Irisviel was beautiful, she deserved someone who would take care of her and show around her beauty.

At this point, they were already in sync. Saber let go of Iri’s right hand, standing besides her, to what the other woman mimicked her movements, opening up the stance of the pair. Such as in a _minuetto_ , they stepped ahead once, then twice, then three times behind. They spin, shifting the side and, so, the hands. Two more steps ahead, then they leaned the shoulders closer and went back to the waltz position.

Iri laughed in delight. Saber grinned, sincerely, her eyes shining full of emotion from seeing her princess’ happiness. The rhythm was welcoming to a beginner, but, anyway, Iri looked like she had a talent for dancing. It was a matter of tact. Of reading the mood so that her body could realize before her mind which was the sequence of moves. It was a matter of tact… and of being in accord with their pair.

Of being two bodies composing one sole being, one sole form.

For their movements did not need to be identical, though they had the same rhythm, the same color.

Ruby eyes shined bright, such as those from a pristine maiden. With a virginal beauty that would made a gentleman woo her and hold her like a fine crystal. Not afraid that it would break, for the most sylvan of flowers have also their independence to bloom by themselves. No, he holds it for its preciosity. Because it charms him, and he is so afraid that other man might find and take away his little treasure.

In a raise of hands, Saber led Iri into a pirouette, just so, as soon as she returned her gaze, Saber’s hand would come back to place, circling each other’s bodies, back to back.

They did it once, twice, thrice, in a slightly elevated pace each pasting second. Their gazes unmoving from each other. Saber held both of the woman’s hands, barely thinking in her movements anymore, and they each took a step behind. Iri spun on her own. Saber held her from behind.

Iri’s pale neck stretched up to face her pair from over her shoulder, not to broke the eye contact. Saber had her lips dumbly parted, as if she wished to say something more, or she was holding back a sigh.

Again, they were face to face to each other. That which they were dancing was not simply a waltz. It was something that belonged to them, something alive, which their spirits were building up by themselves, in a mutual instinct. Saber brought both her hands to the other woman’s waist and lifted her up. Iri leaned the hands on her shoulders, red on her cheeks and an expression like she was holding her breath. Locks of silver hair fell down as an astonishing curtain, separating the faces of the two of them from the outside world. All that while, their eyes were unmoving.

When she finally breathed out, it was when Saber brought her back to the ground. The whole movement was so fluid that it barely seemed to be an effort. However, though Saber’s strength could bear her weight for as long as she wished, it lasted only enough not to break the magic of the moment.

“… You are so pretty, my princess…” she whispered, without realizing. Again, she flushed by her own unfamiliar reaction.

“It’s my handsome knight who deserves all the credits”, Iri answered with no shame, to her own surprise. “Wasn’t it yours the job to maintain me pretty?”

The blonde’s smile brightened up, and she nodded.

“You’re right.”

How much time had passed, they wondered. In their minds, they were not even there anymore. To them, the castle had the lightning and the decoration suited for a ball. The music existed in their heads, even though they couldn’t voice it… but it was there! Iri’s dress was dazzling, a pannier under her skirt so it looked like in a fairytale. The King of Britain, eyes as blue as the sky and gentle smile cast only at her, wore gala outfits…

Maybe there were other people around them. Maybe they could hear their voices, but opted to ignore them in favor of dancing. Maybe it was a night as cold as in England or Germany winters, but their hearts were warmed up, so little did that matter.

Once again, Saber made Iri spin and, when she was back to facing her, their palms touched.

The music stopped and they realized they need to catch up their breath. Drearily, they stared each other once more, their hands coming down little by little. And, as they came down, their fingers intertwined, but they barely noticed that. It was all so natural that they couldn’t notice.

Inevitably, Saber looked down at Iri’s pinky lips. She didn’t realize that the albino was also no longer looking at her eyes.

“Thank you”, she said, “for teaching me how to dance…”

“…You’re welcome, milady.”

In some point, they would have to part. In some point, Kiritsugu would be back to the castle, or something related to the War would require Saber’s presence, or Irisviel would feel the feverish exhaustion connected to the magic in her body…

Something, for sure, would make them part.

They stared at each other, with the same magic in their eyes.

… Anytime soon…


End file.
